Nuujoma ploughs his way to success
Agribank’s Emerging Farmers Retail Financing (ERFP) loan beneficially Elifas Nuujoma said his life was changed to good after he started farming along Etaka canal, between Epalela and Onesi in Omusati region.
Nuujoma who was jobless by then has been struggling to earn income to sustain his family.
However, in 2005, he took a decision to capitalize on his land near the water source to venture into horticulture.
“When I was unemployed, I have always been thinking of ways to sustain my family, I have a house and kids to take care of, and so I landed on this idea of horticulture farming. I started just on a small piece of land, working with my own hands and expand my farm as I sell my produce,” Nuujoma said.
In 2018, he extended his farm after he bought a tractor together with other soil preparation equipment through the ERFP loan from Agribank.
“With this support from Agribank, I can now produce a variety of vegetables on a larger scale such as green peppers, onions, watermelons, cabbages, tomatoes, butternuts just to mention a few,” he said.
According to him, because of the income from the farm, he manages to send his children to further their studies at institutions of higher learning such as the University of Namibia (Unam), bought a brandnew car, build a house and became his family breadwinner.
In addition, he has five people on his farm that are employed permanently and during the harvest time, he employs over 20 casuals.
“In future, if God permits, I want to become a big and selfestablished horticulture farmer at the northern regions and I would love to create at least over 100 employment opportunities,” he said.
Currently, he is facing the outbreak of tomato worms on his farm that have destroyed a portion of his tomato plantation. He also highlighted a lack of access to the market as another challenge, a situation that has left them with no place to sell their produce as farmers.
“I therefore plead to our government to at least try and find a market for us, where we can sell our produce in order to grow our businesses because this is the only source of income we have,” Nuujoma concluded.